A Nets Reserve Recovers His Game

Andray Blatche is not the type to ruminate on bad games, although Game 5 was a big one. The ball had been in his hands in those final, achingly dramatic seconds, with the Nets trailing. And Blatche threw it away.

It would be hard for anyone not to struggle with self-doubt after an error like that. Blatche wrote on his Instagram account early Thursday morning that the thought of the pass made him sick.

But in response, he delivered a rousing first-half performance off the bench in Game 6 to help the Nets build a 21-point lead en route to a 97-83 win that evened the series at 3-3.

“I wasn’t trying to make up for it, but it was definitely on my mind,” Blatche said of the last-second turnover in Game 5. “I made a terrible mistake.” He added: “It was a hustle play that just went bad.”

On Friday, all of Blatche’s hustle plays went better. He finished with 8 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes, but the vast majority of the output came in his 11 minutes in the first half, after Coach Jason Kidd brought him into the game as the backup center ahead of Mason Plumlee, who played one minute.

Immediately, Blatche injected the Nets with intensity defensively and on the glass — not usually his main areas of concentration. He looked like a player reborn. In those 11 minutes, Blatche had six rebounds, two blocked shots and one steal, drew a charge, scored six points and added an assist.

“I thought Dray was great — defensively, blocking shots, taking charges,” Kidd said. “He was there, he was very active. He was active offensively, too. We’re going to need that same performance from him in Game 7.”

Blatche and Alan Anderson, started instead of Shaun Livingston, gave Brooklyn an aggressive edge, particularly on the boards, where the Nets out-rebounded the Raptors, 45-42.

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Andray Blatche discusses the Nets’ strong start in the first half Friday night against the Raptors.Published OnMay 3, 2014

“It was just being aggressive,” said Anderson, who had 9 points. “It was swinging a lot my way, and I just wanted to be aggressive getting to the basket, not just scoring but making other opportunities for other players.”

Anderson said Blatche took Wednesday’s loss hard. The whole team did, after fighting back from 26 points down in the fourth quarter, only to lose.

Much of the criticism went toward Blatche, who had been a key component of the comeback. But after a missed free throw with four seconds left and the Nets trailing by 2, Blatche had the offensive rebound in his possession. His pass out to Deron Williams sailed well over Williams’s head for a backcourt violation. Blatche later said it slipped.

He had an up-and-down regular season with the Nets. It was his most productive year statistically since 2010-11, but his erratic play remained an issue. Kidd seemed to be favoring the rookie Plumlee down the stretch in April.

In the playoffs, though, Kidd has relied on Blatche’s physicality and experience against a gritty Raptors team, and he responded Friday with a performance full of intangibles.

When asked about doing the little things, Blatche said, “I don’t look at it as little. I look at it as not giving them second-chance points. That’s something that hurt us before. We all focused on that.”

When Blatche entered with 6 minutes 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter, the Nets led, 14-11. Moments later he had a steal, then scored on a layup to put Brooklyn ahead by 10. The Nets ended the quarter leading by 15.

Blatche was simply making good on a prediction he made at the team’s morning shootaround.

“We’re definitely going back to Toronto,” he said before the game.

After Friday’s win, Blatche had another opportunity to offer a bold statement. He was not to blame for a loss this time, but there remained an edge to his words.

In three minutes talking to reporters outside the locker room, Blatche did not smile once.

“We guarantee it,” Blatche said. “We’re going to go there and take care of business and go to Miami.”

Correction:

An earlier version of a caption in this article misidentified the Toronto Raptors player defending Deron Williams. He is Kyle Lowry, not DeMar DeRozan.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D5 of the New York edition with the headline: Reserve Shakes Off a Late Blunder to Provide an Early Boost. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe